SummaryModern agriculture often involves the use of pesticides to protect crops. These substances are harmful to target organisms (pests and pathogens). Nevertheless, they can also damage non-target animals, such as pollinators and entomophagous arthropods. It is obvious that the undesirable side effects of pesticides on the environment should be reduced to a minimum. Western honey bees (Apis mellifera) are very important organisms from an agricultural perspective and are vulnerable to pesticide-induced impacts. They contribute actively to the pollination of cultivated crops and wild vegetation, making food production possible. Of course, since Apis mellifera occupies the same ecological niche as many other species of pollinators, the loss of honey bees caused by environmental pollutants suggests that other insects may experience a similar outcome. Because pesticides can harm honey bees and other pollinators, it is important to register pesticides that are as selective as possible. In this manuscript, we describe a selection of methods used for studying pesticide toxicity/selectiveness towards Apis mellifera. These methods may be used in risk assessment schemes and in scientific research aimed to explain acute and chronic effects of any target compound on Apis mellifera. Métodos estándar para la investigación toxicológica en Apis mellifera ResumenLa agricultura moderna a menudo implica el uso de plaguicidas para proteger los cultivos. Estas sustancias son dañinas para los organismos objetivo (plagas y patógenos). Sin embargo, también pueden dañar a animales que no son objetivo, como artrópodos polinizadores y entomófagos. Obviamente los efectos secundarios indeseables de los plaguicidas sobre el medio ambiente deben ser reducidos al mínimo. Las abejas occidentales (Apis mellifera) son organismos muy importantes desde el punto de vista agrícola y son vulnerables a los impactos inducidos por los plaguicidas. Contribuyen activamente a la polinización de los cultivos y de la vegetación silvestre, lo que hace posible la producción de alimentos. Como Apis mellifera ocupa el mismo nicho ecológico que muchas otras especies de polinizadores, la pérdida de las abejas melíferas causada por contaminantes ambientales sugiere que otros insectos pueden experimentar un resultado similar. Ya que los plaguicidas pueden dañar a las abejas y a otros polinizadores, es importante registrar los plaguicidas que sean lo más selectivos posible. En este artículo, se describe una selección de los métodos utilizados para el estudio de la toxicidad y el efecto selectivo de los plaguicidas hacia Apis mellifera. Estos métodos se pueden utilizar en sistemas de evaluación de riesgo y en la investigación científica para explicar los efectos agudos y crónicos en Apis mellifera de cualquier compuesto objetivo.

in this work, we disclose a non-invasive method for the monitoring and predicting of the swarming process within honeybee colonies, using vibro-acoustic information. two machine learning algorithms are presented for the prediction of swarming, based on vibration data recorded using accelerometers placed in the heart of honeybee hives. Both algorithms successfully discriminate between colonies intending and not intending to swarm with a high degree of accuracy, over 90% for each method, with successful swarming prediction up to 30 days prior to the event. We show that instantaneous vibrational spectra predict the swarming within the swarming season only, and that this limitation can be lifted provided that the history of the evolution of the spectra is accounted for. We also disclose queen toots and quacks, showing statistics of the occurrence of queen pipes over the entire swarming season. From this we were able to determine that (1) tooting always precedes quacking, (2) under natural conditions there is a 4 to 7 day period without queen tooting following the exit of the primary swarm, and (3) human intervention, such as queen clipping and the opening of a hive, causes strong interferences with important mechanisms for the prevention of simultaneous rival queen emergence.

Insect pollination is of great importance to crop production worldwide and honey bees are amongst its chief facilitators. Because of the decline of managed colonies, the use of sensor technology is growing in popularity and it is of interest to develop new methods which can more accurately and less invasively assess honey bee colony status. Our approach is to use accelerometers to measure vibrations in order to provide information on colony activity and development. The accelerometers provide amplitude and frequency information which is recorded every three minutes and analysed for night time only. Vibrational data were validated by comparison to visual inspection data, particularly the brood development. We show a strong correlation between vibrational amplitude data and the brood cycle in the vicinity of the sensor. We have further explored the minimum data that is required, when frequency information is also included, to accurately predict the current point in the brood cycle. Such a technique should enable beekeepers to reduce the frequency with which visual inspections are required, reducing the stress this places on the colony and saving the beekeeper time.

The One Health approach acknowledges that human health is firmly linked to animal and environmental health. It involves using animals such as bees and other pollinators as sentinels for environmental contamination or biological indicators. Beekeepers noticed intoxications of apiaries located in the vicinity of sheep and cattle farms, which led to the suspicion of bees' intoxication by the products used for livestock: veterinary medicinal products (VMPs) and Biocides, confirmed by laboratory analysis. We review the legal context of VMPs and Biocidal products considering Europe as a case study, and identify shortcomings at the environmental level. We describe the possible ways these products could intoxicate bees in the vicinity of livestock farms. We also illustrate the way they may impact non-target species. The cases of ivermectin and abamectin as VMPs, deltamethrin and permethrin as Biocides are considered as case studies. We show bees can be exposed to new and unrecognized routes of exposure to these chemicals, and demonstrate that their application in livestock farming can affect the survival of pollinators, such as bees. We conclude that: (1) figures on the marketing/use of these chemicals should be harmonized, centralized and publicly available, (2) research should be devoted to clarifying how pollinators are exposed to VMPs and Biocides, (3) toxicity studies on bees should be carried out, and (4) pollinators should be considered as non-targeted species concerning the environmental risk assessment before their marketing authorization. We propose the term “Multi-use substances” for active ingredients with versatile use.

The EU Bee Partnership is an initiative that was created in 2017 to bring together stakeholders who have an interest in data sharing on bee health and beekeeping in the EU. The EU Bee Partnership Prototype Platform aims at collecting and exchanging standardised data on pollinator health and other relevant data based on the Bee Hub Proof of concept initially led by BeeLife European Beekeeping Coordination within the framework of the Internet of Bees Project. This new stage of development responds to the main conclusions of the EU Bee Partnership: the need for data standardisation and communication for the benefit of stakeholders and EFSA. The work developed during the prototyping of the platform funded by EFSA has included the design and implementation of data models for the data integrated in the Prototype Platform (https://bee-ppp.eu). A procedure for data and metadata integration has been created and implemented, including validation of the data quality. The platform was enriched with datasets coming from existing projects and public databases. Additionally, several algorithms for exploring the data and extracting ready-to-use information have been proposed in this phase providing examples and avenues for future development. Finally, a reporting feature was added, and some reports were produced, to illustrate the type of information that the analyses of the platform could generate in the future for the benefit of stakeholders, institutions and more sustainable bee health and beekeeping in the EU.